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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28849782">Meeting Halfway</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/pseuds/Gammarad'>Gammarad</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Heart of Gold - Sharon Shinn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Marriage customs, Wedding Planning, culture clash</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:14:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,383</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28849782</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/pseuds/Gammarad</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There's this argument Jalciana and Kerk keep having.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kerk Socast/Jalciana Candachi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Bulletproof 20/21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Meeting Halfway</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/possibilityleft/gifts">possibilityleft</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For those reading fandom-blind, see end notes if you'd like some spoiler-free background.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Kerk Socast and Jalciana Candachi got engaged, everyone -- initially Kerk included himself in this number, though he was not sure about Jalci -- thought they'd have to have two weddings, one indigo, one gulden. </p><p>But it seemed they would only need one. Jalci's family would host it indigo style, of course -- Kerk hardly felt comfortable asking his foster father Brolt Barzhan to do so, and he couldn't afford it on his own. Which might have left him feeling that he should put it off until he could, but Jalci's family had convinced him they would create a wedding that Brolt, and just as importantly his wife Tess, would approve. They were famously open-minded and cross-cultural as a family, the Candachis. The fame of the Candachi family extended all the way from the capital of the indigo nation of Inrhio, where Kerk now lived, where Jalci had lived her whole life, to Geldricht, the capital of the neighboring gulden nation. </p><p>"Everyone expected me to do something like this," Jalci said when Kerk asked how her mother had taken the news. "And my mother was scandalous enough herself, in her day." </p><p>True enough. Jalci's mother Estil had been an orphan, taken under the wing of her famous not-exactly-aunt Kitrini, of no known house so she had, and Kerk was not clear on which it was, either taken the name of Candachi after Kitrini herself or taken it on marrying Jalci's father, whose mother, Sereva, had not had a daughter of her own. </p><p>And until the age of ten, Estil had been raised by her gulden mother.</p><p>No, what became far more of a bone of contention than whether to have an indigo-style or gulden-style wedding, was who would take whose name.</p><p>"You don't even have a family for me to join," Jalci said in exasperation after they'd gone through the entire thing for what was probably the fourth time. </p><p>"There's my sister Coe," Kerk said.</p><p>"But you were an orphan. I mean, if you'd become Kerk Barzhan, if Brolt Barzhan had adopted you into his family, I'd understand. I know how important they are to you. But you didn't. And I mean, your father, he's gone? And he was awful to begin with. I'd think you'd be happy to trade the Socast legacy for the Candachi."</p><p>"And your mother wasn't born a Candachi," Kerk argued. "There will be plenty of Candachis. Kitrini Candachi has a daughter. If our children are not Socast, there will be no more of my family."</p><p>"Not necessarily," Jalci said thoughtfully. "Didn't Coe say she planned to marry an indigo man?"</p><p>"That is not the same," Kerk said. It wasn't. Was it? It sure didn't feel like it was the same.</p><p>This was the impasse where they had given up the last three times they'd had this argument, too. Not agreeing, just being tired of talking about it. Of fighting about it.</p><p>So instead, they moved on to discuss wedding plans. Which they were both excited about. "My father's agreed to do the gulden 'giving the bride to her husband' thing," Jalci said with adorable enthusiasm. "And Grandmama has arranged for gulden builders to make proper archways for us to walk through in the Hartano garden grounds. I've talked to Del and she assured me that would be a proper wedding venue for a gulden couple. Here in the city, she says, it's often done that way." </p><p>Kerk couldn't really object. He thought it likely that his young foster brothers might be married in such a place. None of them would be likely to marry a blueskin girl, though. </p><p>Or would they? These days it was so hard to keep things straight in his mind. To keep people separated into gulden and indigo, his people and the other ones, now that he and Jalci would soon be a family.</p><p>What he'd learned so far of indigo wedding ceremonies was pleasant enough, if it all seemed pointless to him. Meandering, like so much of their society when it wasn't oppressive. "And I suppose all your little cousins will enjoy wrapping us with ivy," he said. "And whatever other plants they decide to use." </p><p>"Yes, the flowering vines," Jalci said. "And I'll read my promises to be loyal to you and care for your home, and you'll read your vow to care for me and my children." </p><p>"Yes," Kerk agreed. </p><p>"You know they'll interpret that differently than you," Jalci said, laughter in her voice.</p><p>"That's up to them," Kerk said. "I can't worry about such things."</p><p>And everything was happy, again. Joyful, even. Until the topic of what their name would be after the ceremony came back around. </p><p>As it would. Inevitably, it would. It had to be decided, after all. Kerk just wasn't sure how to make Jalci see that he was right.</p><p>And she apparently thought the same. The next day, she took him to see Kitrini and it was the first thing she brought up.</p><p>"Aunt Kit," Jalci said, "I've been having trouble convincing Kerk that he needs to become a Candachi when we marry."</p><p>Kitrini looked shocked, just for a split second, and Kerk could see -- he knew for a fact, though he wasn't sure how -- that she was shocked Jalci had said this and Kerk hadn't reacted with violence. </p><p>He sighed because he completely understood why she'd be shocked and yet it was exhausting when indigo thought like that about him or any gulden man. Wasn't it bad enough that the gulden women here, who'd run away from husbands they couldn't stay with in Geldricht, thought of him that way? As dangerous, prone to violent fits in anger? Did he really have to be treated so by someone who ought to know better like Kitrini Candachi.</p><p>Kitrini put her hand on his when he sighed. The blue of her skin was duller than Jalci's bright tones, duller only due to age, he thought. The bones of her hand, the veins, stood out in relief, also due to age. But her voice was as vibrant as it had been in her youth, Kerk believed, as vibrant as Jalci's. "She doesn't understand what she says," Kitrini said, and then looked at Jalci. "That's more than an insult, you know."</p><p>"It is not!" Jalci was indignant. "Our family is wonderful. He should be proud to be joining it."</p><p>"As you should be proud to be joining his family," Kitrini countered.</p><p>"That's not the same." Jalci shook her head. "His family isn't --"</p><p>"I'm going to stop you right there before I get angry myself on Kerk Socast's behalf. I doubt he would want this woman fighting his battles." Kitrini smiled.</p><p>"Kit Candachi, any gulden would be proud for you to fight his battle." Kerk stood up as he said this. "Not that it would stop me from fighting my own. But I do not take this as a battle. It is, only, a disagreement between two who love each other. A quarrel such as this is not to be fought, but to be persuaded. This is what I have learned." He leaned over to kiss Jalci's cheek. "She will become a Socast of her own decision, because it is right. Not because I threaten her. Or even because you threaten her. Which," he added, "you will not." Firmly. </p><p>"I see you are ready to protect your bride from me, as I am to protect you from her," Kitrini said, laughing.</p><p>"I don't need protection from anyone. I need your help, Aunt Kit." </p><p>She looked from one to the other. "I don't think I can help. At least not alone. I will make you tea, both of you, and you'll stay to supper. When Nolan is home, between us we'll solve this riddle for you, I am sure."</p><p>But it didn't take them that long. </p><p>By the time Nolan arrived, they'd worked out over tea what had to be their answer.</p><p>Each of them, it seemed, was joining the other one's family. They would both go by either name, as the situation required it. Jalciana Candachi, or Jalciana Socast. Kerk Candachi, or Kerk Socast. Flexibility would be the key. Neither family was an exclusive commitment for these two. </p><p>They would always be living in two nations that were slowly, so slowly, becoming one.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This story follows after both the novel <i>Heart of Gold</i>, and the story "Blood" which takes place in the same setting, an unnamed planet where the indigo (blue skinned, black haired humanoid people) matriarchy of Inrhio has made a fragile peace with the gulden patriarchy of Geldricht (gold skinned humanoid people with red, brown, or blond hair). </p><p>Jalci and Kerk only appear in the story "Blood". Jalci is from a famously liberal and xenophilic family; Kerk is an orphan who was taken in by a peaceful, kind man who married his father's widow, who cared for Kerk after his mother ran away with her young daughter to Inrhio. The two of them bonded over both volunteering to help gulden refugees in the crowded capital city (pretty much the only city) of Inrhio. In the story they are resolved to be just friends, but there's definitely UST. </p><p>Kitrini is the main character of the novel Heart of Gold, an aristocratic indigo woman who lived in Geldricht in her childhood with her father, a famous indigo anthropologist who studied and befriended the gulden leader.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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